The Red Wings are still without Datsyuk, but they are riding some momentum, taking a three-game winning streak into today’s game against the Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre (5:30 p.m., Fox Sports Detroit Plus).

And Neil anticipates another physical game.

“We always want to be physical, that’s one the things on the board (here), our physicality, we want to initiate,’’ Neil said. “You play teams hard it makes it tough for them to break out. If you’re in hard on the forecheck it might pay dividends later on in the game. A guy might cough it up and you get a good scoring chance. That’s how we want to play.’’

“I don’t think we can be any worse than we’ve been (vs. Ottawa),’’ Babcock said. “First game we were awful.

“Their power play is a juggernaut against us; took 13 minutes of penalties in the third period in the last game just to make sure we didn’t win. We’re bound to play good against them one of these times. Let’s fix this.’’

Alfredsson believes the Red Wings are a different team than the one that faced the Senators before.

“I think we’re playing better hockey now than the first time we played them,’’ Alfredsson said. “It’s going to be a fun game. We know they’re a desperate team and we’ve been going good the last five games (4-1-0).

Neil said his club is aware of what the Red Wings can do.

“They got a lot of skill over there; we don’t want to be embarrassed by them,’’ Neil said. “So if you don’t pay attention to details they’re going to bury you.’’